Innovative Trials, a clinical trial patient recruitment company, is calling on the medical research community and pharmaceutical sector to come together to tackle the issue of patient diversity in research, particularly in light of the Covid-19 outbreak.

The company is concerned that the fast pace of Covid-19 research to find treatments and vaccines, combined with long-held, industry-wide challenges of recruiting people from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities into clinical trials, means these groups could be ‘missed out’ from research. This is despite BAME groups being at greater risk of dying from the virus.

Kate Shaw, CEO of Innovative Trials, said: “Black people are up to four times more likely to die from Covid-19 than those who are white, and Bangladeshi and Pakistani people are also at increased risk [1], but we don’t yet fully understand why. This is why it’s imperative to involve these groups in any research testing potential...